The present invention relates to a method of connecting a terminal device to a printer on a network.
Various types of printing protocols such as an LPR, PORT9100, IPP and NetBIOS have been widely used for connection control between a terminal device and a printer. The printing protocol defines a communication protocol for transmitting printing data between the terminal device and the printer.
If an operating system running on the terminal device is Windows®, a program called Port Monitor installed in the terminal device operates according to the printing protocol so as to connect with the printer. FIG. 14 shows a hierarchical structure of software concerning printing operation. As shown in FIG. 14, print data outputted by an application program 71 is passed to a spooler 73 through a printer driver 72. After the print data is buffered and managed in the spooler 73, the print data is transmitted to the printer by a port monitor corresponding to the printer to be used.
As shown in FIG. 14, the hierarchical structure of software as to printing operation includes an LPR Port Monitor 74, a PORT9100 Port Monitor 75 and an IPP Port Monitor 76, which operate according to the LPR protocol, the PORT9100 protocol and the IPP protocol, respectively.
Conventionally, various types of network management protocols have been developed. Among them, an SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is well known for its versatility that it runs on a TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) network environment. According to the SNMP network management technology, an SNMP manager which corresponds to a monitoring device for managing the network environment and an SNMP agent which corresponds to a monitored device on which the SNMP is mounted are provided.
The SNMP manager sends a query to the SNMP agent to obtain information concerning the network environment, then the SNMP agent responds to the query from the SNMP manager. The information concerning the network environment of the SNMP agent is referred to as an MIB (Management Information Base), and individual pieces of information defined by the MIB are referred to as management objects. That is, the SNMP manager gathers the information (the MIB) from the SNMP agent, recognizes the network environment, and manages the network.
However, if a user prints out a document through a network on which various types of printers using different types of printing protocols are connected, the user is required to recognize a printing protocol which a target printer (i.e., a printer which the user has determined to use) supports, to install the printing protocol which the target printer supports onto the user's terminal device, and to set up the installed printing protocol. For example, if the user uses a terminal device on which Windows® runs, the user is required to install a proper Port Monitor which the target printer supports, and to set up the installed Port Monitor. It is very burdensome for the user to conduct above mentioned installation procedure of the proper printing protocol so as to print out documents.